Three men are sent by the Vatican to investigate reports of supernatural activity in an old church located in a secluded part of the English countryside - Deacon, a Scottish priest with a reputation for skepticism who has debunked several claims of paranormal activity and who is emotionally scarred by a disastrous investigation of a Brazilian church a year previously
There's nothing wildly original here, and the gotcha scares get repetitive. But the script is witty, the cast are simply terrific ... a spiky, intelligent little throat-grabber.
Goldner carefully builds up the tension by creepy increment, neatly switching from Gray's geezer spiel to an all-pervading sense of dread to inextricably draw the viewer in.
Low-budget horror films based around found footage began to seem outdated not long after The Blair Witch Project but this British excursion into the form is surprisingly enjoyable.
Low-budget British indie finds absolutely nothing new in the supposedly spooky found-footage subgenre, unless all the typical haunted-house frights occurring in a church counts.
Much of this may sound familiar, but The Borderlands' crafty virtue is that it understands that hand-held camerawork and boo scares aren't an excuse to neglect plot, dialogue or characters.
